<p>I'm not trying to start an argument or anything. I'm just generally curious as to why Italians aren't called Italian-Americans (just an example) even if their ancestors have been in the US longer than mine.</p>
<p>Americans of Italian descent aren’t referred to as Italian-Americans in Florida? They are where I come from.</p>
<p>^ Same. Over here we’d also call people of Italian descent “Italian-Americans”</p>
<p>But I’ve always wondered why white people aren’t referred to as “white-Americans” or “Caucasian Americans” hahaha.</p>
<p>o.O</p>
<p>Nope. I’ve never heard of any other race with “American” following the original nationality.</p>
<p>It’s fairly simple. We don’t live in Africa —> we are not Africans.</p>
<p>Americans of Italian descent are generally referred to as Italian-Americans in the media. I don’t know how Dnerd has avoided hearing this. The fact that it’s in common usage is attested by “Italian-American” (in quotations) having well over one million Google hits. Similarly, “German-American” (again, in quotes) has over 42 million and “Irish-American” over 16 million.</p>
<p>As to eastafrobeauty’s question, in many contexts, one doesn’t need to follow “white” or “black” with “American.” As “white” isn’t derived from and thus clearly associated with a place name, "American’ doesn’t needed to be added on for clarification, usually. It’s the same with black. “African,” however, again, does need to be followed by “American” if it refers to Americans of African descent because left alone it refers to people living on the continent of Africa, just as Italian, when left alone, refers to people living in the country of Italy.</p>
<p>I understand all of that, and I don’t think you really have to say that Africa is a continent whereas Italy is a country… That was a general example. It could be South African or whatever. </p>
<p>But I’m talking the term used when describing our descent. It’s just not something people use at all in Florida (or at least not in central Fl)… That’s how I’ve “avoided” hearing it. I also have not seen Italian-American on any college, federal, or scholarship applications when asked to specify ethnicities or racial backgrounds. The reason I even thought of this question in the first place is because my African friend mentioned it in class the other day since he said he always has to pick African-American rather than African.</p>
<p>People here are called Mexican, Caucasian/White, Indian, etc. I have never heard Indian-American, Mexican-American, Caucasian-American, etc. I guess I forgot about Native American Indians, but that’s a bit different. </p>
<p>I guess since it is used some places you can completely ignore my question then…</p>
<p>Oh and where do you live? I’m not getting anywhere near 42 million hits for German-American (with or without quotes), but Google often changes displayed results based on where your ISP’s server is located.</p>
<p>I do get over 63 million hits for “African-American” though and no other combination I’ve searched is even at or past 5 million… So it really isn’t as common as you’re making it out to be. This is all being searched without any filtering btw.</p>
<p>I always hear at xxxx - american when its second generation or more, and xxx when they’re first generation. Because by the second generation, they’re Americans.</p>
<p>I’m also from Florida (I’ve only been here for a few years though) and my parents are from Africa so it’s something I’ve wondered from time to time. Sure, I don’t mind being grouped in with other the typical African-American who descended from slaves since I’ve also had to go through the racial discrimination and predjudices. It’s just something I’m confused about. </p>
<p>Are you guys (the ones who do hear “Indian American” and whatnot) all from up north? Maybe it’s just a regional/cultural difference.</p>
<p>What hahalolk and eastafrobeauty are describing is what I’d think would be correct, but I have yet to see/hear it being used here. Even on the news all I hear are descriptions of suspects like “Cuban male, African American male, white male, Mexican male, etc.”,but I guess that could also be because the news stations I watch are all based in central Florida. </p>
<p>“It’s fairly simple. We don’t live in Africa —> we are not Africans.”</p>
<p>I think he was talking about heritage… not your place of birth or current locational status.</p>
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I don’t believe I said anything that disputed that. However, “African,” generally, does refer to a locational status, as does Italian, the example I used above, which is why they are both followed up with “-American” when they refer to people who live without those areas. Though American blacks are of African descent, referring to them simply as African would be unclear as they do not live in Africa and the term “African” generally means that someone does live there.</p>
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Interesting. I live in Cincinnati, as my location still suggests. This is a heavily German-American area, so perhaps I get more results than most. But now that I’ve switched computers (and, in doing that, operating systems, IP address, internet connection, and browser version) I too am getting way fewer. Maybe I horribly misread the numbers or something, but that seems unlikely. I’d check again on the computer I was using at the time, but I don’t know the password.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t doubt that German-American is used less than African-American. African-American has become the most commonly used name for people who were once called black, once colored, once Negro. White is the most common name for, well, whites. Most whites self-identify, the majority of the time, as simply white, not as [National Origin]-American, and, as aforementioned, the adjectives both white and black don’t refer to a location and don’t need to be hyphenated to clarify. As there are fewer German-Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc. than blacks and as fewer whites take on the national-origin based term, the terms are going to be less used. If fewer blacks took on the continental-origin based name, the same would be true. </p>
<p>Now I more fully understand your question/offer for discussion, from your post numbered 6. It really is a nomenclature thing. The term “African-American” was created, chosen, and popularized by blacks. No other race wanted to by hyphenated that much. It does result in some weird things, where Africans select “African-American” as their race, and situations wherein newscasters sometimes refer to actual black Africans as “African-Americans,” but it was chosen by blacks. As for hyphenated terms describing European origins, they were actually, in large part, the inspiration for the creation of the term “African-American” (or at least according to [Wikipedia](<a href=“African Americans - Wikipedia”>African Americans - Wikipedia)</a>).</p>
<p>Sorry if the above was really disjointed, contradictory, or confusing. I took a few breaks.</p>
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<p>Oh, ok. That answers my question.</p>
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<p>I understood it well enough. Thanks :)</p>